Warcraft Future
by Oldboy Webre
Summary: It's Warcraft...in the future." Seven hundred years have passed since we last saw Azeroth. Revisit it in a time sweeped by modern warfare. Now updates on Fridays.
1. Chapter 1

The city streets were dank and grim. Skyscrapers, like tombstones reaching to the heavens, stood on either side. It was sort of like a hallway--yeah, the gateway to Hell, thought Shinsen. The light armor he wore made a small shuffling noise as he walked the street. Dust filled the air from his left flank, a hundred meters (give or take) away. He flicked his body in one sudden motion behind a small piece of debris, left from the bombings the day before.

A heavyset man with a rather intimidating rocket launcher began to form from what used to be a concrete wall, and then a smaller, wiry one beside him, armed with a light rifle. Shinsen couldn't help but groan. His hands fell to his weapon, a B78 of goblin design. It fell from his shoulder on a strap to meet his hands, one on the barrel and one on the trigger. He tensed as the smaller began to speak.

Two words. Were they "Ru ros?" Whatever they were, the larger man growled a few words at the smaller, delivering the effect of silence upon the landscape. Shinsen pressed the "Panic Button" on his gun (goblin engineering's trademark) and tried to disappear. Too bad he didn't have that talent.

Shinsen took a deep breath and lay on his stomach. He pictured the large man—that would be the target of his shots, if he got the chance to fire them. He'd aim for the head and pray for a miracle…these territorial disputes with humans were getting out of hand. Seeing a few units come around the corner in response to his distress signal, he saw a prime chance. He clipped a small, mechanical tube to the bottom of the gun's barrel and lifted himself to one knee. Quickly, to maximize the time he had, he brought the gun's scope to his eye and flicked a switch on the attachment.

There was a small sound of metal being propelled at high speeds…and that it was, out of the "tube" that was his grenade launcher. In the ensuing explosion, the remains of the grenade began to spin, spewing out smoke from its top. He took the time to sprint behind different cover—good timing, considering how fast his former shield fell apart when a Gnomish rocket hissed towards where his head would have been.

Despite all their effectiveness, it just didn't have that quality of "boom" that goblin explosives had. Snapping himself to the job at hand, his eyes flicked to the mobile unit coming down the street—they'd be here in a matter of seconds. Before the dust cleared, he ducked to the side of a building on their side of the street. His heart was beating like mad, but it was hard to grimace with tusks in the way, so there he sat, mouth strung between a frown and a blank look. The smaller man took a few long steps forward, revealing himself to Shinsen's aim. Adrenaline denying any thoughts that might have once came to him, he pulled the trigger.

The man's body crumpled before the onslaught of the bullets. A surprised look lit the human's face as he fell. He could hear the larger man's steps thumping to his comrade's corpse, but the movement fell short of Shinsen's view. Beads of sweat began to trickle down his face. "He must be viewing the angle of the bullets. He knows I'm here…" he thought. It would come to a close-range duel—one of them would turn the corner, guns blazing, to find the other and kill him. He stood up…the odds looked rather equal. He had an automatic weapon which would not require much aiming, but his foe was bulkier, obviously under the influence of Gnomish technology.

Then it came to him. He took a few steps back, slowly, then quickly. His enemy burst around the corner, hoping to find Shinsen running, back exposed. He wasn't so lucky, and orcs weren't so cowardly. Changing directions, Shinsen sprinted to his enemy, surprising him. The effect was multiplied by the butt of the gun smashing into the man's groin… bowling over, he made a prime target, but Shinsen knew he'd be back with guns blazing before he'd have the time to kill him. Instead, he slapped a small, glowing stick to him, and ran. The human stood, and before he could rip it off, he fell.

A bullet had been placed promptly between his ears. A sniper from the response team had seen the flare and done his job in the only way he knew how. Shinsen's steps began to slow, as did his heartbeat. He walked to the team, made a pant of thanks to his savior, and took an AV3C vehicle to the base camp. Stranglethorn Square was a dangerous place.


	2. Chapter 2

With a low crackle on the radio, the operation began.  
The deep jungles Un'Goro, which were untouched by the widespread harvesting by its unique species, advantageous foliage and powerful protectors, were not spared the heat of battle that the rest of the world had. Members of the Grand Alliance had encroached themselves in the jungles, thinking it to be to their advantage.  
Fools, thought Shinsen. Human skin would show well in this dark, green setting.  
The group, comprised of mainly orcs (himself included in the number), six Darkspear trolls and one tauren, began to slowly step forward through the trees, moving to the light crunch of feet-on-leaf. Despite all of his thoughts and the truth they contained, Shinsen felt his body rigid with the heat of a nervous man. There is nothing to describe a situation of this sort, where both sides are the hunters and the hunted...nothing but the word 'terrifying.' Despite the fact that he was a seasoned veteran, he felt sure that the Alliance could here his heartbeat from where he stood. He practically went into a panic simply amusing the thought.  
The tauren, Arrasou, grunted at him, and Shinsen's heartbeat slowly went down to a tense state of normalcy. He had worked with the hulking form of Arrasou before, and he felt safe with him. Maybe it was the given track record the bull-man had--in every one of his missions, the tauren had calmly completed his missions with efficiency and an impressive amount of force (that was probably why he was captain of the expedition, and Shinsen was not). Then again, it's hard NOT to feel safe when there's such an ally with you. Through the jaded combination of heat and humidity in Un'Goro, he shivered. He didn't want to be the man to face one--especially not one with such a large gun as this tauren had.  
The said gun was a Felhound 4-36, firing MASSIVE 90mm exploding shells. The shrapnel alone could cut down some of the largest trees in the jungle--the men were not allowed to have such weapons. Only tauren were given these powerful guns (with the occasional exception)...perhaps it because of their race's maturity, or perhaps it was because it was the only gun that had a trigger big enough for a tauren's hand.  
The dappled light of the trees above fell on his face as he walked. As they marched north, the trees gave way to a small clearing, and the 'crunch' of leaves began to stop, replaced by the hiss of moving grass. The task force split up, eight men and Arrasou keeping to the forest, with Shinsen and six trolls prowling through the grass with Stingers and I-76 sniper rifles. From now on, he would have to be at his best. He was without protection here, not counting his camoflaged armor, and he had a critical job to play.  
He fell to his knees as his unit had already done, and led them onward. He raised his Stinger, which now had a very nice Khorium-forged scope attached to it for this particular mission, to check the landscape before him. He could see the encampment now.  
It was obviously improvised, but it fulfilled its purpous well--Human architecture by character indeed, grunted Shinsen inwardly. It was a large (about 50m in diameter), makeshift assortment of cloth tents with log-built sentry towers watching over all and crude (but once again, effective) barriers constructed of logs and dirt encompassing each angle of the camp, with small passageways in-between them for their soldiers to move. Given the thickness of the the gaps, dwarves must also be hidden away in the camp.  
The thought would have amused him, had he not known it true. No human would have made the gaps so large--it was a direct weakness, and they would have made it as small as possible to set it without hampering movement. And dwarven sharpshooters were NOT something to be trifled with.  
Shinsen moved his gloved hand to his ear, where a small receptor-microphone sat. He pressed the mic to his mouth, and whispered.  
"B Unit to A Unit, move with caution. Dwarven soldiers suspected"  
A grunt over the receptor confirmed Arrasou's answer. The small squadron moved closer.  
The group was about 100 or so yards away from the encampment. They creeped to 80, and slowly circled it. Every once in a while, Shinsen would grunt, and a troll would stay behind, kneeling with his rifle raised high. They continued this routine until the encampment was surrounded evenly and Shinsen was alone. He added the grenade attachment once more, as well as a silencer to his main barrel. He'd had his precious Stinger specially modified for this particular mission--he double-checked all of his gear, armor included, and whispered over the microphone once again.  
"In position"  
Instead of waiting for a reply, Shinsen loaded a flare into his grenade attachment and shot it into the air. They'd have to begin the assault as soon as possible. Dawn would soon break, and the encampment would begin to buzz with its usual activity. That would not be good--the Alliance vastly outnumbered the small unit. At the sight of the flare, a dwarf (positioned on a high tower) raised his horn and began to blow--only to be silenced immediately by a quick bullet by a sharp-minded troll. More shots, mimicking the first, erupted, killing the sentries. Soon, half-awakened soldiers and armored night watchmen alike were rushing out of their tents. Then, without warning, the roaring form of Arrasou and his troops came crashing out of the woods, guns blazing.  
That was partially an attack, partially a signal. The sheer numbers of the Alliance was too much for even Arrasou's mighty unit--Shinsen's unit would have to add some improvised aid to the mix.  
The Alliance, focused on the raging form of the bull-man and his unit, could have never seen the grenades coming, and surely could not have stopped them. Within seconds, explosions began to ring out, and the watchtowers began to fall...upon tent and horrified soldier alike. Amongst the confusion, Shinsen's unit stood and began to gun down the panicked encampments, and Arrasou's unit arrived to secure the victory. A small remnant of human men and women fled, bleeding and injured, to report the loss and live another day.  
As the endeavor's main party entered the camp, Shinsen and Arrasou walked over to a massive collection of steel cages, filled with Hordesmen--both alive and dead--in the corner of the camp. Shinsen kneeled to open one, out coming a small, tear-eyed Orcish girl...but a child, 6 years old at most.  
Hatred boiled up in Shinsen's gut. Humans! Slimy, squirming, lying, cheating, dirty, no-good bastards! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!  
A small voice of instinct in his mind piped up, as if to say 'no, you can't generalize like that, be reasonable'  
Shinsen shoved it down with more disgust. That was a voice for a time long past!

-  
Think 'big-ass bazooka'  
The original M1 Bazooka had a 60" barrel.

From now on, I'm starting comments on each page. As that implies, I am indeed going to start updating once a week. Look for it up on Fridays. If not, look Saturday evening. If not, it's probably not coming that week. I will announce any pre-known problems that would cause lack of update beforehand, so you will know about it.  
I'm looking for someone to help me with ideas and details for the fic. Military experience is a MAJOR plus, email me at addition to that, I'm going to post a summary of what's happened on Azeroth (and Outland) during the several hundred year time gap.

--Shin out 


End file.
